"Playa de Palma says enough is enough." So stated the mayor of Palma, Jaime Martínez, at the ITB Berlin tourism fair on Tuesday in promising that he will put all his effort into ending insecurity and "rampant" irresponsible tourism in the resort.
He explained that there will be new ordinance with tougher penalties for anti-social behaviour - fines up to 3,000 euros.
"The town hall is going to be inflexible." There will be "no turning back" with new policies of zero tolerance of behaviour of the kind that is too common - vandalism, street drinking, fights. "The same things we demand of our citizens, we demand of our visitors."
However, he admitted that the new bylaw he envisages must go through a series of procedures that will make it difficult for it to be approved in time for the tourism season. This said, he insisted that police reinforcements should not suffer a similar delay. There will be increased surveillance this summer. "This is a matter of political will. No one deserves to have to put up with this type of behaviour every year."
In this regard, the mayor said that the town hall has authorised an increase in local police numbers and that there is to be a meeting with the Spanish government's delegation in the Balearics with regard to bringing in "significant National Police reinforcements".